1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for controlling a physical wiring switching device that connects a plurality of information apparatuses and switches connection among the information apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years there has been a tremendous increase in transmission speed and globalization of networks. To cope with this, it has become common to use optical fibers having wide-band properties and low-loss properties as transmission media in Local Area Networks (LAN), Storage Area Networks (SAN), and the like.
Examples of networks in which LANs and SANs are mixed include the networks in data centers. In general, optical wiring in such a data center is managed using an optical wiring board called a patch panel in which optical adapters are arranged. Switching of optical paths is realized by manually inserting and pulling out fiber connectors. Wiring management is performed according to tagging to both ends of a fiber and manual recording of a connection state.
Therefore, in general, establishment and change of an optical network system or connection change of an optical fiber involve complicated work such as tagging for confirmation of apparatuses connected to the optical fiber, update of a wiring diagram, and confirmation of connection. Therefore, in such a network environment managing method, these kinds of work require a lot of man-hour.
Thus, an optical wiring switching device and a management control device therefor that can reduce time required for work by acquiring information on information apparatuses having optical communication interfaces to be optically connected and automating connection management for the information apparatuses are devised (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-100796).
However, recently, large-scale network systems including a plurality of different sub-networks have been increasing following the expansion of a network size. When the physical wiring switching device such as the optical wiring switching device is introduced in such large-scale network systems, if a network address of the physical wiring control device for controlling the physical wiring switching device is kept fixed, it is impossible to acquire information from information apparatuses belonging to sub-networks having addresses different from the network address.